


Forever By My Side

by Nito



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Chuunin Exams, Eventual Relationships, M/M, No Uchiha Massacre, Role Reversal
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 08:11:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14765837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nito/pseuds/Nito
Summary: Complete role-reversal AU. The Uchiha clan was never implicated in the Kyuubi attack and never massacred. Naruto learns the truth about his parents’ sacrifice and the village’s cover up, and leaves to one day enact revenge on the powers-that-be that killed his family.In which the author picks and chooses which parts of Naruto™ to save, and which parts to remove or fix. This is more of a series of vignettes than a coherent story, detailing pre-Shippuden Naruto.





	Forever By My Side

\--

It was the summer of their 13th year, and Team Seven was closer and further apart than they had ever been.

Closer in the literal sense, in that they were all tucked into a bench in the far corner of Ichiraku’s - at Naruto’s insistence. But as the third trial of the chuunin exams grew closer, so did Naruto’s fervor at improving his skills.

Naruto, whose parents sacrificed themselves for the village. A village that, as he understood, never spoke about that sacrifice again. And Naruto wouldn’t have known, hadn’t been told, until Sasuke stole the sealed records from the Uchiha Police Vault.

And Sasuke would never hear the end of his foolishness from Itachi, who caught him.

Sasuke, who was slated to become the Uchiha clan leader when he came of age, was continuously pushed to his limits when it came to working with Naruto.

And Naruto.

A boy consumed by bitterness, staring into the depths of his pork ramen like it owed him money, swirling the noodles around until his ramen became a small whirlpool.

Sakura sat between the two, but with no side to pick, she studied knife work in the sliced pork of her tonkotsu – clean, artistic even, and easier to look at than either of the boys next to her.

As Team Seven ate their ramen in silence, they sat miles apart.

\--

“Failures remain failures.” Neji Hyuuga, a firm believer in fate, stood his ground. “And you will always be one.”

Sasuke righted himself and adjusted his footing, and picked up his kunai. Sharingan versus Byakugan – how difficult could it be?

“You’re wrong – I’m making my own destiny,” and with that, Sasuke lunged forward, then spun behind Neji. It was a matter of speed. And finding the Byakugan’s blind spot.

Another dodge. More speed, then.

Sasuke could feel the last of his chakra draining from him, telling him that he needed to make one final move. Barely forming recognizable signs, a dozen fire-coated shuriken appear, coming for Neji at all angles. Neji misses all of them, except for one that slices and then burns a chunk of his hair. Before he can react, Sasuke moves in, delivering a swift kick to the back of Neji’s head, knocking him out cold.

“I was top of my class,” Sasuke mumbles to himself, pleased as the crowd roars. The two genin geniuses gave a far more enthralling fight than anyone predicted, but the most anticipated fight was last. Or so he thought. The other Suna guy, not the creepy one (well, the less creepy one) whose name was Kankuro, forfeited. And then Shikamaru basically conceded. What was wrong with them…?

Lost in thought, Sasuke left the viewing area where the rest of the Konoha 12 were, and made his way across the stadium with no exact goal in mind. The crowd certainly couldn’t contain their excitement, the air was practically thick with anticipation.

“Two jinchuurikis going up against each other! Are we really going to be safe?”

“I heard that the Suna boy is a maniac!”

“Don’t forget about that Uzumaki kid, if looks could kill…”

\--

_“When did you get seventh level clearance, Sasuke?” A familiar voice behind him rumbled._

_“Uh! Itachi… when did you?” Sasuke countered poorly, and hid the scroll he was looking for behind his back. There’s no way Itachi would suspect anything…_

_“You’re lucky it was me who found you, little brother. Do you know the penalty for breaking into the Police Archives?”_

_Breaking and entering. Stealing. Espionage. Probably high treason._

_Itachi towered over him, arms crossed, looking disturbingly like their father. Sasuke could feel the waves of disappointment coming off him. He must have be practicing his best unhappy teacher expressions for the new Academy semester that was coming up… But anyway._

_Of course he got caught. Of course he did. But he promised Naruto… He promised Naruto that he would help him find out why all the adults treated him the way they did. Not because he cared that much about Naruto, obviously – it was weird, and any kid could see it._

_“How about… I leave and we pretend we never saw each other?”_

_Itachi looked skeptical. “I won’t tell anyone, Sasuke. But I hope you know what you’re doing.”_

 

__\--_ _

___“Here, loser. Read it.” Sasuke tossed the scroll at Naruto. Sasuke had an idea of what it contained – nothing good, but something Naruto deserved to know._ _ _

___“The day that the Nine-Tailed Fox attacked… Sasuke, half of this is redacted! What’s the point!”_ _ _

___“Just… shut up and read it. Itachi caught me, so I hope it was worth it.” Sasuke sat next to Naruto with a huff. And, although he wouldn’t admit it, he was curious to see what was so secret about the village’s history that it was hidden in the barely-used Police Archives._ _ _

___Most of it was blacked out, but it was easy enough to piece together the events of that day. His mother (Kushina?), and his father (the yondaime!!) sacrificed themselves for the village, entrusting the power of the Kyuubi to him. The censorship was a rush job, considering the alarmingly important details that remained visible; it wasn’t difficult to imagine the chaos that Konoha had been thrown into._ _ _

___“Thanks,” Naruto said, his smile not reaching his eyes. “I… I wanted to know what happened to my parents, what everyone’s been hiding from me… I guess I know now.” A bitter, broken laugh just barely escaped the boy’s lips. “Dunno why that doesn’t make me feel any better.”_ _ _

____\--_ _ _ _

Sasuke had nabbed the scroll for Naruto not long after the preliminaries, while they were still training for the final event. And he had noticed that Naruto had managed to get somehow sulkier in the interim, missing team training exercises entirely and ignoring Kakashi’s sardonic reprimands entirely.

But seeing him now, facing down the red-haired Suna kid with an equally chilling expression… It worried Sasuke. Because at the very least they were still comrades, teammates, shinobi, if not friends. His gaze wandered from Naruto over to Itachi, who was sitting with his fellow Academy instructors and jounin-sensei. They had a proctor, and every shinobi in Konoha worth their salt was here, so even if something happened everything would still be fine, Sasuke thought. Right?

Wrong.

Genma gave the signal and Naruto shot off like a firework, attacking Gaara’s ultimate defense with a speed and voracity that had been otherwise unseen from him. Naruto had always fought passionately, Sasuke mused, but he had never seen the scattered blond so focused.

It was unnerving.

Sand swirls around Gaara, ready to defend from any assault that Naruto might bring. And bring he does, aiming kick after kick and punch after punch into Gaara’s sand cocoon, one jinchuuriki’s chakra against another’s, before Naruto suddenly leaps back to his starting position. He summons three shadow clones, and begins another barrage of attacks. Gaara remains unmoving, unimpressed. In fact, Sasuke would say the guy was bored if there wasn’t something weird in his expression.

They remained at this stalemate for a few minutes, Naruto not letting up and Gaara had formed a complete shield with his sand, trapping himself within. Never a good sign, in Sasuke’s admittedly meager experience.

Another pause from Naruto, more hand signs, and a clone appeared aside him, assisting Naruto in a jutsu that Sasuke had never seen before. It was definitely wind-type chakra, compressed, but Sasuke had no further time to analyze it because Naruto had launched himself at Gaara with alarming speed and force. Once the surrounding dust and sand particles had cleared he saw Naruto, red energy swirling around him, whatever that jutsu was dissipating, someone was bleeding – until the overwhelming desire to sleep overtook him.

‘Well, this can’t be good,’ was Sasuke’s last thought before he was ensnared in a genjutsu, and the destruction of the Leaf Village began.

\--

Sasuke awoke to find Sakura peering over him. Also not a good thing, usually. He sat up and tried to ignore an oncoming headache. “How long… was I out?” Sasuke said, fighting back a groan.

“No more than a few minutes, Sasuke,” Sakura said, worrying her bottom lip. “The shinobi that managed to release that genjutsu started fighting the Sound ninja… that got in here somehow. The Police Force has been evacuating civilians, and some guy named Nagato is currently fighting the Hokage. So…” Sakura shook her head, not allowing her unease to take hold.

“Kakashi-sensei gave us a mission! Naruto’s gone after that Gaara guy for some reason, so he wants us to try and bring him back!” Sakura looked determined, and Sasuke wasn’t about to destroy her confidence.

“Just us two?” Sasuke knew he was up to the task, but there was also the Suna ninja to consider, and the mountain of unknowns that was Naruto Uzumaki.

“No, I know that Shikamaru is just pretending to be asleep. Speaking of...” Sakura trailed off and walked over to where Shikamaru appeared to be caught in that genjutsu, fast asleep. Until Sakura smacked him on the back of the head so hard his eyeballs probably felt it, that is.

“Also, we have Pakkun with us.” The ninja hound poked his head up lazily, sitting by Sasuke’s feet. Sasuke nodded at Pakkun – he wasn’t entirely sure at this point that he didn’t have a head injury.

“We should go.” Sasuke stood up, brushing some dust off his pants. “I hope you were listening, Shikamaru.”

“Yeah, yeah, we better get going if we’re going to even try and catch up… It’s gonna take so much work...” Shikamaru rubbed the back of his head.  
\--

They find both boys passed out in the middle of the forest. Or at least what used to be the forest, for there was a large circular clearing in the middle, with evidence of an impressive battle that had taken place. It took longer than Sasuke was comfortable with to see the rise and fall of Naruto’s chest, making sure he was still breathing and hadn’t gone straight from chakra exhaustion to, well… death.

The two Suna nin, (they were his siblings if Sasuke remembered correctly) stared at them as Sasuke approached Naruto. Not breaking eye contact, Temari hoisted Gaara over her shoulder like he was a sack of rice, and slowly backed away, until it was clear that they intended to retreat from their assault on the Leaf Village.

Sasuke checked Naruto over for any visible injuries. He was no medic nin, but certainly even a genin knew that blood was supposed to be inside the body, and generally where all the organs and bones were supposed to be. There were almost no signs that there was even a fight, aside from the weak thrum of Naruto’s chakra, and some rips in that idiotic orange jacket.

Picking him up so that Naruto was sitting on his back with his head thudding dully on his shoulder, Sasuke made his way back to where Sakura and Shikamaru stood at the edge of the clearing.

“I’m not too sure that we should have just let those Suna guys go like that but… That turned out a lot less troublesome than it could have.” Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets. “In fact, we probably should have stopped them.”

“Yeah, us and what army, Shikamaru? Two of us have already fought today, Naruto is unconscious, and every able shinobi is trying to stop Konoha from falling to pieces. I’m sure us trying to stop a jinchuuriki and two ninjas with almost unknown abilities would have gone great for us.” Sasuke had trouble keeping the annoyance out of his voice, and was panting slightly by the end of his sentence. It had been a long day.

“I think… That’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at once, Uchiha. Let’s get back to the village before they start wasting time on trying to find us.” Shikamaru smirked and hopped onto a nearby tree with an irritating amount of ease.

-

Naruto felt numb. Not physically numb. That would almost be preferable. He stood in front of the Third Hokage’s grave. Alone. The actual procession ended hours ago, if the waning sunlight was anything to go by.

It was his fault. It was the Third Hokage’s fault that his parents were dead. Why he grew up alone, in a shitty apartment, with no one there when he came home from the Academy or missions, no one to make him breakfast or hug him. Sure, it wasn’t like the Third Hokage welcomed the Kyuubi into the village, but he did a fine job of covering up the aftermath.

“We’ve been watching you, Naruto.”

Naruto spun around, and a woman with shocking blue hair was pieced together in front of him. “My name is Konan. You may have heard of my associate, Nagato? He’s sent me to speak with you.”

“Uhh… who?”

“Did you miss the guy attacking the village earlier? He barely escaped after killing the Hokage, but thanks to this –“ a dozen pieces of paper fluttered around her – “I was able to teleport away. But like I said, we’ve been watching you Naruto. I stayed back. For you.”

Naruto crossed his arms, unimpressed. “I don’t get how some weird origami helps a guy disappear, and I also don’t get why you think I’m that important.” He stared at Konan unflinchingly.

Konan laughed. She knew from reconnaissance that he was… a petulant child. Stubborn, too. But in person? For some reason, she wanted to give the poor kid a hug. Konan shook her head. “You have potential, kid. We want you to join us. With Nagato and I teaching you, you could become powerful, you could do anything.”

Anything? He glanced back at the Third Hokage’s grave marker. And who was there to stop him from just… leaving? The Third Hokage was dead but… The people who allowed his parents’ deaths? The ninja village that created the circumstances under which they were killed? They still existed.

And Naruto’s heart burned.

“When?”

This was his chance. He could become stronger, avenge his parents’ wrongful deaths.

“Now.”

Paper infused with Konan’s chakra swirled around them both-

“Wait! I don’t even get to say goodbye?!” Naruto yelled, panicked, struck with how suddenly his life seemed to be changing.

“Who… would you want to say goodbye to?” The paper stopped swirling, showing genuine confusion on Konan’s face, her knitted brows.

Team Seven? Not all at once. Kakashi-sensei? He’d probably tell someone, or worse, try to stop him. Sasuke? He wouldn’t understand. Would he?

Konan frowned at Naruto’s silence, then forced her expression to go lax. No sense in making waves. “If you must make your peace with your comrades, do so now. You have an hour.” Konan sighed internally. This was probably a bad decision, one she would never hear the end of if Nagato found out…

Unaware of Konan’s inner turmoil, Naruto leapt away in search of the only person who ever tried to be his friend.

\--

_Naruto sat on a small dock on the side of the river. The sun was finally rising. After the Hokage heard his side of the story, of what had happened between him and Mizuki-sensei and-_

_Naruto clenched his fists. Iruka-sensei didn’t have to do that, shouldn’t have done that, not for him. He was just some kid who couldn’t even graduate from the academy. And yet, Iruka-sensei jumped in front of giant shuriken for him._

_And he didn’t deserve it._

_Severed his spinal cord, killing him instantly, old man Hokage had said. Said that Iruka-sensei didn’t even feel it, probably. Probably._   
_A wayward sob lodged in Naruto’s throat made its way out, breaking the morning calm._

_It wasn’t fair. Everyone loved Iruka-sensei, and he… he sacrificed himself._

_“Hey. Idiot.”_

_Naruto whipped his head around fiercely, recognizing the voice and not entirely pleased about it._

_“What do you want, jerk?” Naruto wiped his nose on his sleeve. Not conspicuous at all._

_“I heard you crying from across the river, stupid. I… heard about Iruka-sensei.” Sasuke mumbled._

_“And?” The young boy grit his teeth, ready for whatever blow Sasuke was about to deal him. He stared at the horizon, waiting._

_“Sorry. I know he was important to you.” A beat of silence. “It wasn’t your fault.”_

_“Wha- wait, Sasuke-“ but before Naruto could deny Sasuke’s words, he was gone. All that remained was a Konoha forehead protector, bright blue, with a note pinned to it._

_‘You earned it.’_

\--

The Uchiha compound was built on the outskirts of Konohagakure, and as the village grew, the Police Academy became intertwined with much of clan’s architecture, surpassing the other notable clans in scope and breadth.

There was no way in hell Naruto was going to be able to near the outer wall, much less inside.

Naruto slumped against a tree near the compound. It wasn’t like him to give up, but nearly getting pummeled to death by Gaara had forced him to reevaluate. If he was going to avenge his parents, he had to be stronger.

“Oh, Naruto-kun, is that you?” Naruto looked up, barely able to make out her face in the moonlight.

Mikoto Uchiha was carrying several bags of take-out, still in full jounin gear, and a look of concern on her face.

“You’re out awfully late, Naruto. Are you waiting for Sasuke? I can go get him for you.” She readjusted the bags in her hand. “Just let me get dinner to my team, and he’ll be right out.” Mikoto hurried off into the Police Force building before Naruto could get a word in. That seemed to be happening to him a lot lately.

Naruto had only seen Sasuke’s mom act like that around him. Team Seven was invited over for dinner a few times, and while she doted on Sakura like the daughter she never had, it was intensified for Naruto. Concern over his tattered clothes, his diet, his unruly hair, all of it.

It was weird. But it also seemed to bother Sasuke to no end, so Naruto let Mikoto give him leftovers or some money she insisted he buy a better jacket with.

Something more worthy of a ninja, she had said. So, he bought new sandals to replace the pair that basically had no soles and called it even.

“Naruto. Unless Kakashi decided to start training us at night, I don’t understand why you’re here.” Sasuke had his hands in his pockets, but his curious expression betrayed his casual demeanor.

“I’m leaving the village, Sasuke. I just wanted to say goodbye. You can let everyone else know.”  
“You’re leaving? To go where?” Sasuke tensed.

“Dunno. But I have to get stronger. It’s the only way.” Naruto stood, meeting Sasuke’s eyes.

“So you came to tell me? I could turn around and have every member of the Police Force on your back. I was just trying to annoy you by calling you an idiot, but Naruto, did you even stop and think for a second?” Sasuke’s voice climbed in volume, clearly worried.

“You won’t do that Sasuke. You’ll let me go,” Naruto said softly. “You will.”

“You don’t know that.”

Naruto removed his headband, along with a kunai. He dragged the kunai against the soft metal, scarring the Leaf Village symbol.

“It’s the only way to make my parents’ deaths right. You know it is.” Naruto’s voice wavered. “I feel like I’m suffocating here, Sasuke. You’ve seen how the villagers treat me, how everyone treats me! You gave me the papers, you stole those papers that said my parents died for me! And I’m barely a ninja, Sasuke. You know that.”

Silence. Nothing. An owl in the distance. Naruto’s erratic breathing.

Calm.

“Sasuke. Just tell Kakashi-sensei and Sakura that I’m sorry. That’s all.” Naruto turned to leave, back to the graveyard where he would meet Konan.  
“I can’t let you go, Naruto. We made a promise, as Konoha shinobi-“

“Konoha made a promise to not murder my family, Sasuke! How would you feel if they were responsible for the death of everyone you ever loved? I didn’t even get to know my parents. So I don’t care about any promises I made.” Naruto threw his marred headband towards Sasuke. “Keep it.”

\--

“We cannot allow the jinchuuriki to leave, Hokage-sama.”

“If it gets captured by another nation, the implications, Hokage-sama could be disastrous for the village!”

Tsunade held up her hand, briefly silencing the council members.

“I’ve already had several of _Naruto’s_ classmates offer their assistance in retrieving him; I’d appreciate it if you wouldn’t call the boy an ‘it’, Koharu-san. And you wonder why he ran away.” Tsunade pressed her fingers against her temple. In truth, she was surprised that the village elders were still alive, much less that they were still meddling in everyone’s business.

“You think a few chuunin are going to be able to stand up to a terrorist organization? We have limited intelligence on the Akatsuki, Tsunade-hime, but they would be slaughtered instantly and you know it.” The older man crossed his arms.

“Then what do you propose I _do_ , Homura-san,” Tsunade bit back. “I refuse to treat him as a missing-nin - not yet.”

“This is a job for ANBU. Danzo should have some ideas for mission applicants-“

“No.”

“…No?”

“I’m sending the jounin-sensei, they have a better chance of bringing back Naruto Uzumaki alive and well. While I have no doubt in ANBU’s capabilities, I know that right now he needs to be listened to. And dragged back here by his ears.”

“And if we lose all of our jounin-sensei? Then what do we do?”

_“Please_ get out of my office, Koharu-san, Homura-san.” Tsunade gritted out.

The elders left, suitably annoyed, and Tsunade was left to the silence of her office. She slumped over her chair, the mantle of the Hokage leaving her.

“Shizune! Where did you hide the sake?!”

\--

Asuma Sarutobi, Kurenai Yuuhi, Maito Gai, Kakashi Hatake, and Itachi Uchiha stood in front of the Hokage’s desk, the air tense. Tsunade nodded at the group, lightly clearing her throat.

“I apologize for the lack of intel, everyone. The Akatsuki has been very secretive. We don’t know what their goals are, but if they want Naruto – and the Kyuubi – it can’t be good. We know they’ve gone east, in the direction of Amegakure. Your goal is to retrieve Naruto, and if you must, deal with any Akatsuki along the way. We’re not sure if Naruto has gone willingly or not, so be cautious.”

“Actually, Tsunade-sama,” Itachi said, eyes on the ground. “I believe Naruto went willingly. He visited Sasuke the night before. And while I don’t know their exact conversation, Sasuke seemed convinced Naruto was going to defect from the Hidden Leaf.”

“Well, shit.” Tsunade rubbed her temples with her fingers. How was the loudest, most visually jarring ninja in all of Konoha able to slip out from their grasp?

“You’ll leave as soon as possible. Try not to die. Am I understood?”

The five ninja nodded, and without a word, disappeared from the Hokage Tower. They had some catching up to do.

**Author's Note:**

> I’ve been working on this sporadically for about 8 months, and my writing style has changed like 18 times and you can probably tell, haha. Anyways, I have a lot of Thoughts and like… little things that I would be totally open to explaining more!! Leave a comment or hit me up on my tumblr!!


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